J.P. Morgan Chase Adds Voice To Stimulus Debate

One of the nation’s largest financial institutions (FIs) is quietly pushing for another round of stimulus funding, with the focus on helping jobless workers and low-income families.

J.P. Morgan Chase has sent over to President-Elect Joe Biden a series of recommendations on what the banking giant thinks should be in the next stimulus package, as well as a warning about the negative impact of taking no action on the crucial issue, according to CNBC.

Spending by unemployed workers has declined rapidly since the additional $600 federal benefit under the original, $2 trillion stimulus package expired in August, according to the bank’s policy paper.

The 14 percent drop in savings “shows no signs of having plateaued,” as jobless workers burned through two-thirds of their savings in August alone, the bank reported.

With 20 million workers in the U.S. still collecting unemployment benefits, J.P. Morgan Chase – and specifically the J.P. Morgan Policy Center – recommends both reinstating the additional federal unemployment payment and sending another round of stimulus payments to families.

“Absent additional government stimulus, lower-income households and those who faced job loss may exhaust their accumulated savings buffer and be forced to further cut spending or fall behind on debt or rent payments,” the J.P. Morgan Chase policy paper notes.

The New York banking giant’s stimulus push comes as lawmakers from both parties engage in high-stakes negotiations over the size and shape of a new stimulus package.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has tried to cap any new bill in the $300 billion range, House Democrats have been pushing for a much larger package that would be well over a trillion dollars.

Hoping to break the political logjam, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including a handful of Senate Republicans, recently proposed their own $908 billion compromise proposal.

However, that compromise proposal, while it features $288 billion in small business aid, would not include another round of stimulus checks to U.S. households.